Flux balance analysis is a mathematical approach for analyzing the flow of metabolites through a metabolic network.

Recommanded review papers:

  • Park, J. M., Kim, T. Y., & Lee, S. Y. (2009). Constraints-based genome-scale metabolic simulation for systems metabolic engineering. Biotechnology advances, 27(6), 979-988.
  • Orth JD, Thiele I, Palsson BØ. What is flux balance analysis?. Nature biotechnology. 2010 Mar;28(3):245-8.

Applications in systems metabolic engineering

Predict gene knockouts that allow an organism to produce desirable compounds.

  • Burgard, A. P., Pharkya, P., & Maranas, C. D. (2003). Optknock: a bilevel programming framework for identifying gene knockout strategies for microbial strain optimization. Biotechnology and bioengineering, 84(6), 647-657. [paper]
  • Feist AM, Zielinski DC, Orth JD, et al. Model-driven evaluation of the production potential for growth-coupled products of Escherichia coli. Metabolic Engineering. 2010 May;12(3):173-186. DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2009.10.003. [paper]

Softwares/Tools for (non)linear optimization

Tool Language Feature Additional Info
CasADi Octav; Matlab; Python; C++ Algorithmic differentiation; Export conputating graph to stand-alone C code  
Ipopt C++ Sparsed calculation Interior Point OPTimizer (IPOPT)
cyipopt Python Sparsed calculation A Python wrapper around Ipopy
  • Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP).